Sep 9, 20222 min read

A Look into Our Life - Quarterly Update - Summer 2022

Summer has been a whirlwind. And as much as I love it, I'm glad it's winding down and we're heading for a change of pace with autumn. Today I'm sharing some of our highlights from summer 2022.

We started out the summer with a family canoe trip down the Juniata River. It was the perfect day filled with sunshine and a light breeze. We saw loads of turtles, deer, and birds. We even watched as a mama duck fought a bald eagle to save her chicks. Unfortunately, after 10 hours on the river we realized that someone miscalculated the distance to our destination. When we finally reached our exit point it was pitch black. As we sat by the side of the road waiting for our ride to come, we thought about the 45-mile trip and tried not to focus on how wet, tired, and hungry we were. Despite its downsides, the trip was still a blast! But I'm sure we'll never go on an adventure again without double checking the distance.

For my brother's birthday we went to a WWII airshow. It was like stepping back in time. Something most people don't know about Caleb and me, is that we're both very interested in WWII. In some of the photos below you can see our vintage outfits and a few planes from the airshow.

Some of our other highlights from summer included spending time with family, taking walks through nature, and lying under the sky watching fireworks.

The other big news in our family is that my baby sister is getting married! There's been lots of showers and wedding planning happening this summer. My sister is planning to have an evening wedding in a beautiful meadow on top a small hill. The whole family has been helping to get her venue ready. She and her fiancé also purchased a house that is only a few minutes away from our home. We're excited to be so close! The whole family is again pitching in to help get their new home move-in ready.

We had the opportunity to spend a week at the beach with my side of the family. It was nice to get away and relax/enjoy time together. We're looking forward to another beach get away with Caleb's side of the family coming soon.

Our 2022 vegetable garden is past prime. We only have a few spaghetti squash and parsnips waiting to mature before we let the garden take her well-deserved rest. Caleb and I have been working hard to preserve all the produce this summer. We were surprised that our carrot harvest ended up being 42 lbs. It felt like forever getting all the carrots peeled, sliced, and canned.

We're incredibly thankful to have canned green beans and carrots, pickled cucumbers, dried beans, frozen berries, turnips, leeks, and peppers, dried onions and garlic, cabbage, and potatoes from our little homestead. It feels like such a treasure.

On the farm, we've been working on adding cattle pens to our barn. We're hoping to add cattle to the farm in spring of 2023. We cannot wait! We'll share more details on this project as we go along.